


Instinct

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: Saiyuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Animal Instincts, Archival Fic, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Youkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25227118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: There's a few things they didn't tell you about being half youkai.
Relationships: Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo, Genjo Sanzo/Son Goku
Comments: 2
Kudos: 81





	Instinct

**Author's Note:**

> Back to working on moving stuff over from the spambot...this one's from sometime probably pre-2005.

There's a few things they didn't tell you about being half youkai. To be fair, there hasn't really been anyone around _to_ tell you--not since your brother left, and your mom sure as hell hadn't. Not the woman you called mother. Definitely not the woman who popped you out and handed you over, like an unwanted gift that could be politely refused. ' _No thanks--this one clashes with the décor_.' You know. All that _red_.

The guys you're with aren't much help either. Rumor has it the priest's human, though you haven't seen much to back that up. Sanzo damn sure isn't human first thing in the morning, and your ears are still ringing and the air still smells of cordite, so you're in a position to prove it. Hakkai on the other hand was born human, and the youkai he became doesn't get out much, cooped up behind limiters and leashed before Hakkai really got a feel for what he was. And Goku...hell, Goku probably doesn't even notice the weird stuff. Which isn't to say that Goku wouldn't, if he ever stopped to think about it, but Goku doesn't think about that shit. Goku doesn't think about much of anything besides Sanzo and his stomach, in roughly that order, which is no fucking help at all.

People see your hair and your eyes and scream 'half-breed,' but when they see you, they don't see youkai. They see human. You're one hundred percent positive of this, because people don't go around kicking bears or poking demons with a sharp stick, but there's usually one moron in every town that wises up to what you are and tries to rub your nose in it. And that's funny, because you could dye your hair, wear dark glasses, and who the fuck would know? Nobody, that's who. You'd be just another human. Unfairly handsome, a killer with the ladies, unbelievably lucky at cards, but none of that will get you run out of town. Well, not usually.

So it's like...maybe people think you never needed to know, like all you got from your old man was the strength and your looks. It never occurs to them that at the heart of every youkai is a bundle of raw instinct, and you're just as much a youkai as you are a human.

And it's _stupid_ stuff, mostly--your body trying to react in ways it's not even built for--like the way every stealthy sound makes your ears twitch. Which does you a hell of a lot of good, all things considered, you with your round, human ears and a body that still hasn't figured out that it was built all wrong, that you've been wrong from the start. Maybe there's something to this 'taboo' thing after all.

It's probably not natural that you like Hakkai's smell as much as you do, that sometimes the only thing you want to do is lean over and push your face into his neck and breathe. Skin and salt, a vague hint of dragon, new-mown grass and a touch of ozone. Hakkai smells fucking fantastic, always has, and sometimes you wonder if you like the scent of him because it's Hakkai, your best friend, or if you like Hakkai because he's the youkai version of catnip.

Shit like that...you try not to think about it, because Hakkai's your friend and he's a guy, and you've never fucked a guy or a friend before. And you're not exactly sure where that came from, how the hell you got on the subject of fucking in the first place, because you were worrying about _instinct_ , not about whether Hakkai would taste as good as he smells, and...okay, maybe that wasn't such a jump after all.

Because you're the only youkai here without a limiter, and sometimes you hope like hell that the guy with the gun doesn't see a human when he looks at you. Just in case. There's more than one way to find out what someone tastes like, and you've all wound up on enough youkai menus lately to know it isn't just metaphoric anymore.

But Hakkai would taste really good, you think, and you wonder what he'd _sound_ like if you caught him one night in some hotel room and licked your way down the muscles of his stomach and...shit.

Sometimes you think about asking Goku what Sanzo smells like to him, but one look at the chimp's goofy Sanzo-spawned grin, and you figure you already know.


End file.
